Council on Graduate Studies in Religion

About the Council

The Council on Graduate Studies in Religion is a consultative body made up of over 30 preeminent institutions in the United States and Canada that offer the PhD in Religion, Religious Studies, or Theology. It has as its purpose fostering graduate studies in religion and theology in all its dimensions.

History

The Council was formed in the 1940’s by a small group of university graduate departments in the interest of establishing and maintaining the highest university standards in Ph.D. study in religion and theology. Early in its history CGSR collected and maintained information on doctoral dissertations of students at its member instituitions and published information on its members’ programs. More recently CGSR has taken up a broad range of issues in graduate education in religion and theology. Its activities have included researching and discussing the state of the job market, sharing best practices in pedagogical training of students, and considering the health of the field in general.

Membership

Its members meet once a year, usually concurrently with the annual meetings of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature. These meetings provide a lively forum for discussing challenges to graduate education in religion and theology and for sharing successful strategies for meeting those challenges.

Member Schools

  • Columbia University
  • Yale University
  • Vanderbilt University
  • University of Virginia
  • University of Toronto
  • University of Pennsylvania
  • University of Notre Dame
  • University of North Carolina at Chapell Hill
  • University of Iowa
  • University of Chicago
  • Union Theological Seminary
  • University of California at Santa Barbara
  • Temple University
  • Syracuse University
  • Stanford University
  • Indiana University Department of Religious Studies
  • Jewish Theological Seminary
  • McGill University
  • McMaster University
  • Princeton Theological Seminary
  • Princeton University
  • Southern Methodist University
  • Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion
  • Graduate Theological Union
  • Fordham University
  • Duke University
  • Emory University
  • Drew University
  • Claremont University
  • Brown University
  • Boston University
  • Northwestern University
  • Harvard University